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Dona Ana County 



IN- 



New Mexico 



Containing the Fertile Mesilla 

Valley, Cradle of Irrigation 

in America 



THE GARDEN SPOT OF THE GREAT 
SOUTHWEST WHERE RETURNS FROM 
THE LAND ARE GENEROUS AND SURE 




Compiled by Dr. R. E. McBride, Las Cruces, New Mexico 
Published by Authority of the 

BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION OF NEW MEXICO 
1908 






\y\o 



DONA ANA COUNTY 



IN 



NEW MEXICO 



Containing the fertile Mesilla Valley, Garden Spot of 
the Great Southwest, where Modern Irri- 
gation is now being brought to its 
highest development 



Compiled by Dr. R. E. McBride, for Publication by the 
New Mexico Bureau of Immigration 



IN DONA ANA COUNTY ARE 

Two million acres of the Public Domain open to entry. 

One hundred thousand acres of valley land soon to be reclaimed by 
the Elephant Butte National Irrigation project. 

Forty thousand acres now under cultivation, with permanent and 
assured water supply. 

The soil of the Mesilla valley is rich and deep. The climate is ideal 
for the pursuit of agriculture and for health. With intelligent, 
energetic labor a crop failure on irrigated land is impos.siblp. The 
returns are generous and sure. 

A ten acre farm in the Mesilla Valley, intelligently and industriously 
cultivated will yield an independent income. Turned to fruit 
culture and intensively cultivated it will produce a moderate 
fortune. ; 

Land values here as elsewhere in New Mf'xif^o, are advancing rapidly. 
The time to investigate is now. 



For information not contained in this book about Dona Ana County, 
the Mesilla Valley or any section of New Mexico, address H. B. Hening, Secretary of 
the Bureau of Immisration, .Albuquerque. N. M. 

1908 



D 6 W 5 3 



THIS BOOK has been compiled and published by direc- 
tion of the Bureau of Immigration of New Mexico in 
order to meet in an intelligent and comprehensive way 
the rapidly increasing demand for information about that 
wonderfully fertile section of the Rio Grande valley in New 
Mexico known as the Mesilla Valley and comprising the major 
portion of the settled area of Dona Ana 
FOREWORD county. General attention has been directed 
to the Mesilla valley through the Elephant 
Butte Irrigation ])roject, to be built by the National Reclama- 
tion service at a cost of $7,200,000.00 and to reclaim 180,000 
acres of rich land, approximately 100,000 acres of which are in 
Dona Ana county. This project, the greatest irrigation enter- 
prise ever undertaken, is fully described in the succeeding 
pages. The public nature of the work, its magnitude and the 
large area of rich land which it opens to farmers have united 
to bring forth a flood of requests for information which it is 
sought to supply in these pages. 

Every statement made in this book has been carefully veri- 
fied and may be relied upon. In discussing the resources of 
the valley and the productivity of its soil the effort has been to 
extreme conservatism. The pages dealing with climate, soil, 
field crops, horticulture, etc., are by experts who have verified 
every statement by experiment and experience. The pros- 
pectix-e visitor to the Mesilla valley may therefore feel assured 
that insofar as it goes, this book descrilx's r(^nditions as he will 
find them. 

The compiler of this book has had material aid in his work 
from many residents of Las Cruces and the surrounding 
valley, from the experts. of the New Mexico College of Agri- 
culture and others, and; .to these the thanks of the compiler and 
the Bureau of Immigration are extended. 




A Mesillii \ :ille.v Home 



/d- 



Dona Ana County 

Its Location, Topography and History 




HE COUNTY of Dona Ana, having its 

name from the daughter of a Spanish 

colonel, who in the olden days of the 

Spanish occupation, was stationed at an 

army post near the present village of that 

name, lies in the extreme south-central 

section of New Mexico. On the south it 

is bounded by the Republic of Mexico and El Paso county, 

Texas. On the north lie Socorro and Sierra counties; on the 

east Otero county, and on the west Luna and Sierra counties. 

The county has an area of 3,818 square miles, or 2,443,- 
635 acres, its area being about twice that of the state of 
Delaware. 

The Rio Grande enters the county in its northwest corner 
and, flowing in a southeasterly direction, divides the county 
into two almost equal parts, the land running back from the 
river in a broad expanse of fertile valley and rolling upland, 
bringing up sharply on either side against towering mountain 
ranges. All that portion of the valley of the Rio Grande 
lying in Dona Ana county is known as the Mesilla Valley. 
In the northwestern section of the county are the Good Sight. 
Caballo and Magdalena mountain ranges while the Organ and 
San Andreas mountains pass through the eastern part, rising 
in a series of broken, majestic peaks, rich in minerals into 
which the pick of the prospector has as yet hardly been driven. 
The Organ mountains, the principal range wMthin the county, 
rise to a height of from eight to nine thousand feet and lend a 
background of rugged and magnificent scenery to the sheltered 
valley below. 

Dona Ana was one of the original counties established 
upon the creation of New Mexico into a territory of the 
United States and extended across the entire territory from 
east to west. In 1855 all of the Gadsden purchase was an- 
nexed to the county and remained a part of it until the organi- 
zation of the territory of Arizona when the county's western 



DONA ANA COUNTY 5 

boundary was reduced to that of the present western boun- 
dary of New Mexico. From Dona Ana County have been 
created in wliole or in part the present counties of Grant. 
Luna. Otero, Eddy, Chaves, Roosevelt and Sierra. The old 
town of Mesilla and later Las Cruces as seat of goverment 
of southern New Mexico have from the very organization of 
the territory played an important part in its history. 

A writer in "Farm and Orchard" for November, 1907, 
thus describes the Mesilla Valley : 

"The Mesilla Valley, from which the bustling town of Las 
Cruces, "The Crosses," seat of government of Dona Ana 
county, derives its growth, may well be likened to a vast gar- 
den that will extend its area over 
THE MESILLA VALLEY many more thousands of richly 

soiled acres when the full flood of 
the Government irrigation system pours over it. This gar- 
den, spreading out between the majestic mountain ranges over 
whose tops the few fleecy clouds of an almost perpetual spring 
float in the sunshine like birds of soft plumage at play in the 
bowl of heaven, gives invitation to the people of the world to 
come and make homes of delight and plenty for themselves. 
The invitation is meeting wdth response. This is a spot to- 
ward which thousands of pleased eyes are turned, where 
thousands of new people will soon be residing." 

Rhetorical as it is, the writer's description of the valley 
is not at all misleading, nor is it overdrawn. 

The Mesilla Valley, the name given to that section of the 
Rio Grande valley in Dona Ana county from Rincon on the 
north to the Texas line on the south, is one of those favored 
sections "high enough to escape humidity and far enough 
south to protect it from severe cold". Practically all of the 
land in New Mexico to be irrigated by the Elephant Butte 
project lies in this valley. The land, particularly that in the 
river bottoms, is very fertile. This does not mean that the 
land wdll produce fabulous crops without labor. No claim of 
the miraculous is made for this valley. Here, as elsewhere, 
the soil will not yield its best returns without hard work, and 




Shaded Lane Leading to Alameda Ranch, Near Las Cruces 



DONA ANA COL"NT\ / 

proper cultivation. The claim is made, however, that with 
proper cultivation, this land will produce results equal if not 
superior to those to be had from the richest irrigated districts 
in the world. 

The soil is, for the most part, a mixture of sand and adobe 
(clay, or clayey soil that is very sticky when wet and that 
bakes very hard when dry). Between the clay on one hand, 
and the coarse sand on the other are to be found every grada- 
tion of clay-loam, loam and sandy loam. Generally the soil 
is easy of cultivation. 

That section of the Mesilla valley north of the town of 
Rincon, is known as the Rincon valley, conditions there being 
substantially the same as in the lower valley. The altitude 
of the Mesilla valley as about 3,800 feet while north of Rincon 
it rises to about 4,000 feet. 

Quoting again from the writer in "Farm and Orchard" : 
"Farming in the Mesilla valley has no element of speculation 
about it. The only thing that taxes the genius of the grower 
is to choose those products that will bring the largest returns. 
With the necessary labor applied all crops will bring profit. 
The soil will respond with gratifying liberality to the hand of 
the energetic tiller. The returns are enormous in comparison 
with the amount of capital and labor expended." 

There is no difficulty in finding a market for e\ery pound 
of produce grown in the valley and transportation facilities 
are ample. 

The description of the valley may be easil\- followed upon 
the accompanying map of the Elephant Butte project and its 
adjacent territory. 




Herding Gont« In the Orgnn MonntnlnK 



DONA ANA COUNTY 




L 



A Las Cruces Home 



AS CRUCES, the 
City of Crosses, is 
the county seat and 
principal town of Dona Ana 
county. It was laid out in 
1848, at the close of the 
Mexican war, by United 
States army officers from the 
military post at Fort Selden 
18 miles to the north. The town is beautifully situated on the 
eastern edge of the Mesilla valley at an altitude of 3875 feet. 
Until comparatively recent years Las Cruces was one of the 
picturesque "show places of the south- 
LAS CRUCES west". But the magic wave of develop- 
ment that has swept over all New Mexico 
within the past five years, has found Las Cruces and has trans- 
formed it from a one time sleepy "adobe" town into a rapidly 
growing, hustling little city of the most progressive type. It 
is forty-three miles north of El Paso, Texas, and 210 miles 
south of Albuquerque, on the main line of the Atchison, To- 
peka and Santa Fe railroad from Albuquerque to El Paso. 

Incorporated in 1907, Las Cruces now has municipal water 
works, electric power and light plant, ice factory and cold 
storage plant, two flour mills, a fruit and vegetable cannery, 
a steam laundry and all of the conveniences of the typical, 
hustling southwestern city. The population is now about 
4,000. Should the present rate of increase continue it will 
have considerably passed the 
5,000 mark before the census of 
1910. There are two excellent 
hotels and a number of first class 
rooming houses, two strong 
banks, a handsome Roman Catho- 
lic cathedral and several buildings 
owned by the Protestant denomin- 
ations. 

Las Cruces is very justly 
proud of the educational facilities 

Dona Ana Court House 

the town affords. 1 he public Las cmces 




DONA ANA COUNTY 



1 I 




F'irst National Bank BIcIk 
Las Criices 



school system is excellent. Three 
buildings are used, the North ward, 
the South ward and the Central 
building. This latter, completed 
during 1907, contains eight class 
rooms, an office and library, is 
heated by steam, lighted by elec- 
tricity and equipped with city water 
and all conveniences. The grounds 
are ample to allow of an addition the same size as the present 
building and this will be found necessary within the next two 
years, as the present enrollment of between five and six hun- 
dred taxes the capacity of the present buildings. The schools 
are under direction of a superintendent and a corps of thirteen 
teachers. They are thoroughly graded, carefully directed and 
only the most competent teachers are employed. The length 
of the school term is nine months. These schools compare 
favorably with those of any town of equal size in any section 
of the United States. 

Graduates from the common branches of the Las Cruces 
public schools are granted entrance without examination to 
the courses of the Agricultural college without examination. 
This institution, located two miles from Las Cruces will re- 
ceive special attention in the following pages. 

The Sisters of Loretto maintain a large convent and a 
thoroughly equipped academy accommodating 150 pupils, the 
enrollment being always full. This institution, which has re- 
cently been enlarged and improved, is one of the best equipped 
schools of its kind in the southwest. It is under direction of 
Sister Abertina who has the assistance of twentv Sisters. 




The Santu Ke Uepot Las ('ruce» 



12 



DONA ANA COUNTY 




The Park and Park Hotel Lag Cruces 

Two English and three Spanish weekly newspapers are 
published in Las Cruces, as well as a monthly journal devoted 
to agriculture and horticulture. All of the more important 
fraternal societies are represented. 

Headquarters of the United States district court for the 
third district of New Mexico are located in Las Cruces, as is 
;ilso the United States land office for the southwest district of 
New Mexico. The Mesilla Valley Chamber of Commerce is 
a strongly established institution which has been the means 
of doing much for the development of the town and the valley. 
It is fairly representative of the business community of Las 
Cruces which is well served with able lawyers, physicians and 
other professional men; while all lines of staple business are 
represented by up-to-date houses. Several reliable real estate 
firms are doing much good in advertising the valley and in 
bringing in the more desirable class of citizens. The Western 
Union and Postal telegraph companies maintain commercial 
offices in Las Cruces wdiile the town is connected by telephone 
with all parts of the valley, and many points in New Mexico 
and Texas. 



DONA ANA COUNTY 



13 



M 



ESILLA, the second largest town in the county, was 
the county seat, as well as the seat of the court and 
United States land office until 1880. The town is one 
of the oldest in New Mexico and in the stirring early days 
was the scene of many history-making events. Save for a 

magnificent new brick cathedral 
OTHER SETTLEMENTS recently built by the Catholic 

parish, it is an "adobe" town, pic- 
turesque, but not yet awakened to the new life that has found 
its more energetic neighbor. 

Mesilla Park, two miles south of Las Cruces, on the 
Santa Fe railroad, is a suburb of Las Cruces and is chiefly 
important as the station for the Agricultural college. 

Anthony and Bering are small towns on the Santa Fe 
railroad in the southern part of the county and on the east 
side of the Rio Grande. They are shipping points for pros- 




Fublic Schools at Las Crii<-es — Ceiilnil Building 
and Southward Building 



DONA ANA COUNTY 15 

perous farming districts and a large flour mill is located at 
Anthony. 

San Miguel, La Mesa and Chambering are small set- 
tlements on the west side of the river, in the midst of a rich 
farming district just beginning to go forward. Around each 
of these villages -large tracts of most favorably located land 
are awaiting to be put under cultivation. At Chamberino, 
General B. J. Viljoen, late lieutenant general of the Boer 
forces in South Africa, has located a colony of his energetic 
people who are materially aiding in the development of that 
section. Until recently the west side of the Rio Grande has 
been without communication with the railroad save by ford- 
ing the treacherous river. There is now, however, a substan- 
tial bridge near San Miguel, while another, further south, will 
soon be built. 

Dona Ana, five miles north of Las Cruees. is one of the old 
adobe towns. 

In the northern part of the county are the towns of Rin- 
con, Colorado and Garfield. Rincon is an important junction 
point on the Santa Fe railroad and with the completion of the 
Elephant Butte project will become an important shipping 
point for the northern part of the valley. 




A View in Old Las Cruees 




Irrigation In the Mesilla Valley 

Its History and Development The Elephant Butte Project 

11 KN Coronado, most daring and most 
successful of the Spanish Conquesta- 
dores, marched north from Sonora into 
what is now New Mexico in search of 
the fabled seven cities of Cibolla, 
stories of whose untold wealth of gold 
had captured his fancy, he found the Indians along the Rio 
Grande diverting the waters of the river through crude ditches 
to irrigate their lands. The story of Coronado's wonderful 
march and its discoveries is not for this brief bulletin, but we 
know beyond question that irrigation as found by him was 
practiced in the Rio Grande valley long before Columbus dis- 
covered America, while there is ample basis for the theory 
of many writers and scientists that irrigation along the Rio 
Grande antedated irrigation in the valley of the Nile. The 
Rio Grande valley, therefore, has full justification in claiming 
title as the cradle of irrigation in America ; and there is a 
splendid justice in the selection of a portion of this valley as 
the site for the greatest irrigation project ever undertaken by 
individual or government, the Elephant Butte, or Engle, 
storage reservoir project. 

To the man who is interested in irrigation there is an in- 
tense fascination in the story of the development of irrigation 
in the Rio Grande valley, from the first crude ditches of the 
Pueblo, or village Indians, through the early struggles of the 
pioneers with their community ditches, up to the great Ele- 
phant Butte reservoir and its broad canals, representing the 
highest development of the modern science of irrigation. 

As nearly as can be learned from the early Spanish records 
prior to and immediately succeeding the great Indian uprising 
of 1680 when all Spaniards were driven from the country, the 
agricultural population living along the Rio Grande and cul- 
tivating their land by irrigation consisted of the Tiguax, 
Pecos, Taos. Picuries, Queres and other pueblo tribes. The 
village Indians were the constant prey of the roving Apaches 
and their farming was only that necessary to furnish the bare 



1 8 DOKA ANA COUNTY 

necessities of life. It is impossible to arrive at any accurate 
estimate of the amount of land cultivated along the Rio 
Grande prior to 1800. 

The Spanish priests and officials established missions and 
settlements generally at the points where they found Indian 
settlements, adopting the methods of the Indians in cultivating 
the soil and raising not a few of the same crops which are 
today being profitably grown under modern methods on the 
same soil. This desultory form of farming continued from 
1598 to the time of the American occupation. It is from the 
American Occupation in 1846 that modern irrigation in New 
Mexico dates. In this year General Stephen W. Kearney took 
possession of the territory. The records of the Kearney cam- 
paign furnish abundant evidence, were evidence needed, of the 
extent of cultivation of the soil by the natives along the river 
valleys. 

There is no record of the fiow of water in the Rio Grande 
prior to 1880. From that time the supply, particularly in the 
lower valley, has been uncertain, chiefly because of inadequate 
ditch and diversion systems. But the government reclamation 
service has begun work on the Elephant Butte project; the 
first unit in this great project, the Leesburg diversion dam, has 
been completed and the days of water famine and uncertain 
supply for irrigation in the Mesilla valley are gone forever. 
That there should have been w^ater famines in the past is not 
surprising when it is recalled that the ditches used were in 
many cases those used by the Indian three centuries before: 

The Rio Grande occupies first place in number of irriga- 
tors, acreage and length of canals in use. Rising in Colorado 

it flows through the entire 
THE RIO GRANDE SYSTEM length of New Mexico. 

Upon its entrance into the 
territory it passes through a series of long, deep canyons to 
emerge near Embudo, just north of Santa Fe. Thereafter it 
possesses the characteristics of a typical desert stream, — "too 
thin for successful cultivation, too thick for a constant bever- 
age and reasonably deep if turned on edge". It is not to be 
assumed from this oft quoted sentence that the Rio Grand car- 



DONA ANA COUNTY 



19 



ries little water. — No greater error could be made. The vol- 
ume of its flood is enormous, while its constant flow is large, 
although chiefly in the gravels beneath its bed. 

Today there are more than 100,000 acres irrigated from 
the Rio Grande in New Mexico, the water from which is led 
through more than 1,000 miles of canals built at a cost of 
considerably more than $1,000,000.00. A very large portion 
of this acreage is in the Mesilla valley although large areas 
are in cultivation near Albucjuerque and at intervals from 
there through the entire length of the valley to El Paso, Texas. 

Two of the most surprising things noted by the newcomer 
in the Rio Grand valley are the wonderful opportunity for the 
utilization of its water supply and the limited extent to which 
this opportunity has been taken advantage of. Two principal 
influences have operated to hold back irrigation along the Rio 
Grande, particularly in the Mesilla valley. The first was 
an ancient and doubtless honorable treaty with Mexico by the 
terms of which the storing of flood water was prohibited for 
the ridiculous reason that such storage interfered with naviga- 
tion. The only navigation on the Rio Grande is about 1,000 
miles south of the southern boundary of New Mexico. This 
treaty has at last been abrogated, "for which relief much 
thanks". The second cause for retarded development was the 
unsettled condition of title to most of the lands which could be 




A Meailla Valley Cantaloupe Field 



DONA ANA COUNTY 2 1 

irrigated ; and this latter reason has also happily passed away. 
The control of the river and its use for the beneficial purpose 
of irrigation is now assured and on it are to be built several 
of the greatest of the government projects. 

The present Mesilla Valley irrigation system consists of 
all the ditches along the Rio Grande from Rincon to El Paso, 
eight in number, known as community ditches, or canals main- 
tained in common by the com- 
THE MESILLA VALLEY munities of farms served with wa- 
IRRIGATION SYSTEM ^^^ therefrom. These ditches all 

take their water from the Rio 
Grande and head from above Rincon on both sides of the river, 
carrying the water in a southerly direction. They are 75 
miles long with an average width of 13 feet and an average 
fall of two feet per mile. 

These ditches were first constructed in 1848, in the stren- 
nous days when the workman held the spade in one hand and 
a musket in the other, enduring all sorts of privations and 
dangers for the sake of obtaining water for the land. The 
initial cost of construction of this ditch system was $43,725. 
The flow of water has not been measured up to within the 
past year, but the average is about 128 feet a second, although 
the estimates run as high as 1,000 feet a second. The water 
is given to the users proportionately, the system used being 
substantially that of the i6th century. The annual assess- 
ment has been about seventy-five cents an acre, but the amount 
varies according to the work necessary to keep the ditches in 
serviceable condition. There has been a scarcity of water in 
late years, due to engineering difiiculties in the operation of 
diverting the water from the river, and as a result crops have 
been below the average. Through the completion in 1908 of 
the Leesburg diversion dam, fully described further on, these 
difficulties have been disposed of forever and the days of short 
crops, due to scarcity of water, are over. 

North of Rincon, in Dona Ana County, is another com- 
munity ditch, known as the Acequia de Colorado. This also 
takes its water from the Rio Grande, was first used in 1875 
and cost $7,500 to build. It is 12 miles long and conditions 
thereon are quite similar to those in the lower valley. 



22 DONA ANA COUNTY 

ALL OF THE MANY MILES of community ditches, 
working on a system dating from the days of Coro- 
nado, are to be retired by the magnificent, modern 
system of canals to be supplied from the mighty 
Elephant Butte Storage reservoir. 

The terms of the National 
THE ELEPHANT BUTTE Reclamation Act. signed by 
RECLAMATION PROJECT President Roosevelt June 17th, 

1902, are now well known to 
all who are interested in irrigation. "This law places at the 
disposal of the Secretary of the Literior the proceeds of the 
sale of public lands in the thirteen arid States and Territories, 
to be used in the construction of irrigation works." 

The Elephant Butte dam and reservoir, known also as 
the Engle dam and the Rio Grande project, is the largest of 
the twenty-five projects thus far approved and ordered to be 
constructed by the officers of the National Reclamation serv- 
ice. The following description of the Elephant Butte project 
is from an article which appeared in the "Earth" for Septem- 
ber, 1907, with the approval and authority of the officers of 
the Reclamation service : 

The Rio Grande project in New Mexico is one of the 
largest and most expensive of the several great engineering 
works which the Government is now engaged in building. 
Aside from the stupendous engineering 
HISTORY OF works involved in this project, a peculiar in- 
THE PROJECT t^rest attaches to it by reason of the region 
in which it is located. Successful farming 
by irrigation was practiced here centuries before the Puritan 
fathers landed on the bleak and inhospitable shores of New 
England. Primitive as were these methods of agriculture they 
sufficed to sustain a large population in peace and contentment. 
Strangely, too, their communal system of farming, with homes 
in the pueblos and small cultivated areas nearby, is essen- 
tially now being adopted by our later civilization as best 
adapted to desert conditions. During the last twenty years 
conditions in the valley of the Rio Grande in Southern New 
Mexico and Texas have been growing acute. Numerous di- 



DONA ANA COUNTY 



23 



versions of the stream in the upper reaches in New Mexico 
and Colorado gradually deprived the old canals below of their 
supply. Colorado took from New Mexico, New Mexico from 
Texas and Texas in turn robbed Old Mexico. The fight 
became interstate and international and it grew intense in 
years when the river was low. The comity of nations was 
threatened more than once, while the feeling between citizens 
of New Mexico and Texas was at fever heat. 

A treaty was made with Mexico which prevented further 
diversions of the Rio Grande in Colorado and which recog- 
nized Mexico's prior rights and the justice of her claim for 
damages to property of her citizens. For fifteen years we 
have ignored those claims, every attempt to secure Congres- 
sional action having failed. 

One day a long-legged engineer of the Government, a man 
with an inquisitive mind, entered the valley and wandered up 
the river. He studied the records of the stream flow, exam- 
ined old plans for irrigation works, but he didn't like them. 
As one Texan said, "He wasn't suited by a Dam site." It was 
really all a matter of a dam site, and when he found what he 
wanted, as he finally did, he went back to Washington and 
reported. 

Surveyors were sent into the valley. Diamond drills 
punched holes in the river bed, and canals were projected. 
Then a board of engineers went over the plans, approved them 
and sent them to Washington, where they were accepted. The 
problem was only partly solved, however, for here was a valley 
divided against itself with citizens short on temper and quick 
on the trigger, and a dozen 
other plans to dispose of. 

An engineer who com- 
bines the qualities of an Eric- 
son and a Richelieu was 
dispatched to present the 
Government's new plan. His 
patience, tact and persever- 
ance were rewarded. A great 
mass meeting was held in El 
Paso and Mexico, Texas and Home of n. i.. Hines at Mesuia 




24 



DONA ANA COUNTY 




MesUla Valley Cantaloupes 



New Mexico enthusiastically 
ratified a pact of peace and 
pledged support to the Govern- 
ment plans. 

The proposition of the Gov- 
ernment engineers was this : 
The United States agrees to 
construct irrigation works 
which will furnish an adequate 
supply of water for 180,000 acres of land in New Mexico and 
Texas, and to permit enough water to flow down the river to 
irrigate the lands in Mexico, which had been deprived of their 
water supply. 

The landowners in New Mexico and Texas, whose prop- 
erty is to be benefitted, agreed to mortgage their lands as se- 
curity for the repayment of the cost of the work, and Mexico 
promised to cancel her claims for damages in return for the 
water delivered her. Today Texas and New Mexico citizens 
are working as one man for the success of the project. It will 
succeed, for there is no richer, finer land out of doors than 
this same valley from El Paso, Texas, to Engle, New Mexico. 

The most striking feature about the Rio Grande project 
is the Engle dam. It is difficult to describe this ponderous 
structure of masonry which will rise 255 feet from foundation 
to parapet and will be 11 50 feet long on top. If you can 
imagine a structure nearly as high as the Flatiron building 
and more than three city blocks long, you will appreciate the 
massiveness of this dam. It will wedge the lower end of a 
canyon 40 miles long, and it will check and hold the biggest 
flood ever known in the Rio Grande. The capacity of this 
storage work makes the Croton reservoir look like a mill pond. 
It will make a great lake, forty miles long, more than a 
hundred feet deep and containing sufficient water to cover 
2,000,000 acres one foot deep. Even the great Assouan Dam 
of Egypt stores only half as much. 

The Engle dam, with its great gates, its sluicing tunnels 
and capacious spillways, will cost $5,300,000. Its stored wa- 
ters will be led in broad canals to irrigate 180,000 acres of land 



DONA ANA COUNTY 2^ 

or twice the acreage now supplied by the entire stream in this 
country. The cost of the entire work is estimated at $7,200,- 
000, or an average of $40 for each acre irrigated. 

Under the terms of the Reclamation law the irrigated lands 
must be sub-divided into farms of not more than 160 acres 
each, to be occupied by an actual resident who must cultivate 
the land. Every dollar expended must be returned to the 
Government by the land owners in ten years after completion, 
but without interest. 

Unafraid of what in other sections would seem an im- 
possible tax, the farmers of the Rio Grande Valley had no 
hesitation in mortgaging their lands to the Government as 
security for repayment for the cost of the works. 

LAND WITHOUT WATER IN THE VALLEY IS 
VALUELESS WHILE IRRIGATED LAND SELLS 
READILY FOR FROM $100 TO $600 PER ACRE. 
The principal market for the farm products of the valley is 
El Paso and the irrigated lands are traversed by two trans- 
continental lines of railway. 

At best it will require four or five years to complete the 
stupendous w'ork of building the Engle dam and owing to the 
limited condition of the Reclamation fund at the time the pro- 
ject was approved, it was not possible to 
THE LEESBURG commence construction on the main pro- 
Dl VERS ION DAM i^^^ ^^ once; but $200,000 was set aside 
for construction of the Leesburg Diver- 
sion dam and the enlargment of the main Las Cruces canal, 
a unit of the main project. W^ork was begun on this diversion 
dam in November, 1906, and water was turned into the 
ditches with appropriate ceremonies on Wednesday, Febru- 
ary 1 2th, 1908, in the presence 
of several hundred enthusiastic 
citizens of the valley, who saw 
in the turning on of the water 
the passing of years of worry 
over short water supply for 
irrigation : For with the com- 
pletion of this dam all possibil- 
ity of a water famine in the MesUU VaUey watermelons 




26 DONA ANA COUNTY 

canals now in use is impossible, so long as there is water in the 
river. This diversion dam is no small structure. It is of con- 
crete, six hundred feet long, connected with the old Las Cruces 
ditch system by a canal six miles long and supplies water to 
40,000 acres. It is strictly a diversion dam, however, and 
stores no water for use when the river is low. 

The Diversion dam sinks into insignificance as a mere 
temporary expedient when compared with the greater pro- 
ject. The Engle reservoir will be forty miles long and will 

have a storage capacity of 
THEORY AND DIMENSIONS two million acre feet of 
^_ Till- i-Rirki I- nAim watcr. It will submerge 

OF THE ENGLE DAM 33,^,^ ^^^^3 S^^^^^ .^^^^ 

AND RESERVOIR of the stupendous charac- 

ter of the project may be 
had from the following, taken from the third annual report of 
the Reclamation service: 

The Rio Grande is essentially a torrential or storm water 
stream, subject to great floods, so irregular in their occur- 
rence that the total flow in some years is less than one-tenth 
of the total flow of other years. The Rio Grande is a very 
muddy river. It carries in suspension a percentage of silt 
that varies from year to year and from month to month, but 
that is sufficient to have made a mud deposit in the last seven 
and one-half years equivalent to 1.8 per cent of the total vol- 
ume of water that has come down the river. It appears that 
the best solution of the mud question, as well as of the stor- 
age question, is the construction of one big reservoir of great 
depth, with a capacity to store all the water and equalize the 
irregular flow over a number of years, and with a surplus 
capacity for mud storage, until posterity can take advantage 
of its great depth to sluice it out economically. 

This was the reasoning that brought forth the great dam 
with dimensions as follows: 

FBET 

Heighth from bed-rock to top of parapet walls 255 

Heighth from river bed to top of parapet walls 190 

Thickness at bottom 180 

Thickness at crest 20 



DONA ANA COUNTY 



27 



Length of crest 1 1 50 

Length at river level 400 

Roadway — 

Below crest between parapet walls on each side 5 

Wide 14 

Depth of water from river bed to spillway 175 

Spillway to have a length of 800 

Reservoir 40 miles long 

Storage capacity 2,000,000 acre feet 

Will furnish 600,000 acre feet per annum for irrigation 
and will irrigate 180,000 acres of land. 

This, then, is the Elephant Butte reclamation project the 
culmination of centuries of irrigation in the Mesilla valley, the 
largest body of artificial water of its kind in the world, the 
greatest irrigation project ever attempted, and insuring to the 
Mesilla valley a generous, unfailing water supply from year to 
year, sufficient for every acre of land within the valley, making 
the farmer, great and small, independent of weather conditions, 
the yield to be had from his land depending solely upon his own 
intelligence and industry. With such backing it is small wonder 






A YooDg Orchard — Soil Moisture Test Plats N. M. 
Clollege Ezjteriment Station 



Agricultural 






SITE OF THE GREAT DAMi 
The Lower Photograph is from the Reservoir Looliiiig; North from Elephai 

the Bend Aliove Elephant Butte; Ele 




gjl I—Ill IBM 




^ > 4 



^ £? 



XEPHAXT BUTTE PROJECT 

futte. Above from Left to Right are the River Bed nt the Reservoir Site from 

int Butte and the Site of the Dam. 



30 



DONA ANA COUNTY 



that land in the Mesilla valley and under this project is ad- 
vancing in value by leaps and bounds and that from all sections 
of the world are coming demands for information about this 
land of certain plenty. 



The land under the Elephant Butte project is held in pri- 
vate ownership and for the most part, is covered by land grants 

duly confirmed by the United States 
court of private land claims. This 
land can be acquired only by purchase 
from the owners. The land grants 
in Dona Ana county cover a total 
acreage of 90,183 and a fraction, 
distributed in the following grants: 



LAND UNDER THE 
ELEPHANT BUTTE 
PROJECT 



Dona Ana Bend Colony Grant 35>399-Oi7 

Santa Tomas de Yturbide 9,622.34 

Jose Manuel S. Baca 3,530.60 

Refugio Colony 11,524.30 

Mesilla Colony 21,628.52 

Santa Theresa 8,478 . 51 



Total 90,183.287 

Of this area so held under confirmed grants from the Span- 
ish or Mexican governments, several of the grants have been 
partitioned, or divided among the claimants, while others have 
been sold outright. Title in these grants is perfect. The land, 
for the most part valley land, is extremely fertile and prices 
range from $25 to $200 an acre, depending, of course, upon 
location, character of soil, extent of improvements, develop- 
ment and the other condi- 
tions generally governing 
the value of real estate of 
this kind. In and around Las 
Cruces the price of land is 
higher, land suitable for 
town lots or market garden- 
ing being very desirable. 




DONA ANA COUNTY 3I 

LAND SUITABLE FOR AGRICULTURE in Dona Ana 
county is by no means confined to that which will be 
reclaimed by the Elephant Butte project. There are 
now 1,923,176 acres of the public domain within the county 
open to entry under the land laws of the United States, of 

which 1,406,622 acres 
LAND OPEN TO HOMESTEAD have been surveyed. Prac- 
AND DESERT ENTRY ^ically none of this land 

will be brought under 
irrigation by the Elephant Butte project, but upon much of it 
an artificial water supply may be developed, chiefly by pump- 
ing from deep wells, a means of reclamation in which the ex- 
periment station at the Agricultural college has conducted ex- 
tensive and satisfactory experiments. 

New Mexico has become famous, the whole world over, as 
"The Land of Sunshine". Its climate is peerless and the shel- 
tered, sunny valleys are now recognized as ideal in 
all conditions for the health - seeker and particularly 
for the man or woman who is fighting the dreaded consump- 
tion and diseases of the throat and lungs. For the alleviation 
of these troubles the dry atmosphere, the great 
CLIMATE percentage of sunshiny days, and the mild tem- 
perature combine to make a climate almost per- 
fect. The Government of the United States has given sub- 
stantial recognition to the climatic advantages of New Mexico 
by establishing at Fort Stanton its great Sanitorium for the 
treatment of Tuberculosis in the Marine Hospital service, and 
the equally famous institution at Fort Bayard which cares 
for consumptive patients from the regular army. These in- 
stitutions are among the greatest of their class in the world 
and the results obtained at both have attracted the attention of 
scientists throughout the nation. 

Even as New Mexico stands for climatic perfection in 
America, so the MesilFa valley is entitled to rank among the 
most favorably located sections of New Mexico. Annually 
many healthseekers from all parts of the United States seek 
health while resting in the delightful sunshine and on every 
hand are found the happy, prosperous homes of one time 
health seekers, PEOPLE WHO HAVE COME IN TIME. 



32 



DONA ANA COUNTY 



(annual 
( annual 



The climate of the Mesilla valley is as nearly perfect as can 
be found on earth. It will bear comparison of the severest 
kind. The following data, giving a general summary of cli- 
matic conditions in averages covering a period of forty years, 
is taken from a bulletin published by the New Mexico Agri- 
cultural college entitled "Forty Years of Southern New Mex- 
ico Climate", issued in May, 1906: 

Mean maximum temperature, average, 76.8 
mean). 

Mean minimum temperature, average, 41.4 
mean ) . 

Average annual rainfall, 8.82 inches. 

Average number of cloudy days, per year, 49. 

Average number of partly cloudy days, per year, 91. 

AVERAGE NUMBER OF SUNSHINY (CLEAR) 
DAYS, PER YEAR, 225. 

Snow seldom falls in the Mesilla valley and when it does 
is soon melted. The thermometer sometimes shows a high 
summer temperature, but lack of moisture enables one to bear 
this high temperature without half the discomfort experienced 
in a temperature ten degrees lower in the humid sections of 
the country. Sunstroke is unknown in the valley and there is 
absolutely no record of a blizzard. 

Ample accommodations for the health seeker are to be 
had in Las Cruces, the valley and in near-by mountain ranges. 
These latter resorts, particularly for those not bed-ridden, are 
very attractive. One of these places, Van Patten's Mountain 
ranch, located in a beautiful canyon 18 miles from Las Cruces, 
is much frequented by health seekers. A modern sanitarium 
is promised for the near future. The price of board ranges 
from eio^ht to fifteen dollars a week. 




Hauling lu the Crop 



Field Crops in the Mesilla Valley 

By J. J. VERNON 
Expert, New Mexico College of Agriculture 

THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY is often called "The Nile 
of the West", and in many of its conditions bears a 
striking similarity to the valley of the Nile. The Mesilla 
Valley, one of the largest of the numerous divisions which 
taken together form the Rio Grande valley system, comprises 
110,000 acres in New Mexico, of which approximately 35,000 
acres are in cultivation. Practically all crops grown in the 
temperate zone flourish and produce from fair to heavy crops 
in this valley. 

ALFALFA is now the leading crop and because it is the 
surest and easiest crop grown, is likely to continue so. While 
alfalfa is well adapted to conditions and to the present farm- 
ing population, it is peculiarly well adapted to the needs of 
the new settler because it is easy to grow and is at the same 
time very profitable. A farmer who has never grown alfalfa, 
or for that matter, a city bred man who knows nothing about 
farming, can in two weeks time gather enough information 
from his neighbors to insure his success as an alfalfa grower; 
thus immediately assuring himself of a permanent income. 

Alfalfa in the Mesilla valley produces from four to six 
crops or cuttings per year. The yield is from three-fourths of 

a ton to two tons per acre for each cut- 
BIG PROFITS ting, or from three to six tons per acre 

FROM ALFALFA P^' season. There are many exceptional 

fields that produce more than six tons per 
acre per year. It costs from $2.50 to $4.50 per ton to 
produce alfalfa, including all expenses. The large grower 
can place his alfalfa on board the cars, direct from 
the field at about $2.50 per ton. For obvious reasons the small 
grower cannot reach so low a figure. Many growers who are 
prepared to do so store their hay until winter when the price 
is invariably much higher than at time of cutting. Storing 
alfalfa, including shrinkage, will add from 50 cents to 75 
cents per ton to cost of production. 



34 



DONA ANA COUNTY 



ALFALFA SELLS AT FROM $8.00 TO $11.00 PER 
TON, BALED, during the growing season. When stored 
until winter it sells for from $12.00 to $15.00 per ton. 

A GROSS RETURN OF FROM $40.00 TO $60.00 
PER ACRE IS NOT EXTRAORDINARY AND A NET 
PROFIT OF FROM $20.00 TO $50.00 PER ACRE is quite 

common in the Mesilla Valley. 

Alfalfa has no equal as a for- 
age crop. It is not only highly 
nitrogenous, but its palitability for 
all kinds of stock is unsurpassed. 
Feeds carrying large percentage 
of digestable 
proteids are 
absolutely es- 
sential to the 
greatest suc- 
cess in dairy 
husbandry 
and since 
alfalfa 
consti- 
tutes one 
of the best 
feeds for 
cows, this 




Karin Scenes at Liiterne Kaiich Near C'liainl>erino, Mesilla Valle.v. 

1 and 2. Hay Baler at Work. 

3. Reaper and Binder at Work. 4. Plowing in January. 

5. A Prize Hay Field. 6. A Late Cutting of Alfalfa. 

7. One of the Lucerne Ranch Houses. 



DONA ANA COUNTY 35 

crop will in time make this valley one of the foremost dairy 
regions in the southwest. 

WHEAT AND CORN probably stand next to alfalfa in 
importance at the present time. Wheat is a sure crop and the 
average yield per acre is from 25 to 35 bushels, considerably 
above the average yield in the "wheat belt". The New Mexico 
Agricultural College Experiment station has developed a few- 
varieties that give a much better yield than the present average 
for the valley. One variety is now being distributed among the 
farmers which has produced 40.7 bushels per acre as an average 
for four years. The station has produced two or three varie- 
ties that have given still better results. These will be available 
in a couple of years. The price of wheat ranges from $1.50 
per hundred pounds at threshing to $2.00 per 100 pounds in 
the winter season. 

Corn is a crop requiring more attention through a longer 
season than wheat and the acreage of corn is therefore not so 
large, although it is now being extended very rapidly. The 
yield of corn when known productive varieties are planted, 
will equal the average yield in any of the corn growing dis- 
tricts of the country. 

The saccharine and non-saccharine sorghums produce 
heavy crops, though owing to the great favor of alfalfa, the 
area devoted to these crops is comparatively small. 

Oats, barley and rye form excellent crops, barley probably 
being the heaviest producer of the three. Seventy bushels to 
the acre has been grown on the experiment station farm. Oats 
and barley will undoubtedly receive more attention when it 
becomes generally known that they are heavy producers. 

Mangel Wurzels have received little attention from Me- 
silla valley farmers though the tonnage yield has proven 
very satisfactory. With development of the dairy industry 
this crop will become important in order to supply the needed 
succulency during the winter season. 

Cow peas are known and highly regarded in the south and 
the Mesilla Valley is located so far south that cow peas grow 
luxuriantly and produce heavy crops. They may be used as a 
regular crop, or as a catch crop after wheat, oats, etc. As a 
soiling crop for cows they have no superior while they make 



DONA ANA COUNTY 39 

ticultural branches and the opportunities for their extensive 
and profitable development are very promising. 

The apple is now the most extensive fruit crop grown in 
the valley. This fruit, in its size, coloring and flavor, comes 

well up to the standard demanded by 
APPLE CULTURE the best judges. Mesilla valley apples 

have attracted attention and have won 
prizes at many fairs and expositions and were among the prize 
winning American collection at the Paris Exposition. In 
September, 1905, the writer collected an exhibit of fruit from 
this valley which he exhibited before the American Pomologi- 
cal society which met in Kansas City. The Mesilla valley 
apples compared favorably and in many respects were superior 
to those exhibited from other sections. At this meeting a 
great many of the practical as well as scientific fruit growers 
of the United States were present and the judge's selected 
from their number to pass upon the merits of the various 
exhibits, awarded one of the six Wilder medals to the apples, 
Mission grapes and peaches from the Mesilla valley. 

The apple trees in this valley bear early and yield good 
and heavy crops. The yield will vary with the variety and 
with the season. During every other season the trees produce 
heavy crops and while we have no recorded data on the yield, 
the writer has in mind a 12-year-old Ben Davis apple tree in 
the old Casad orchard in Mesilla, from which he helped pick 
fifteen 40-pound boxes of good, sound apples. 

While there are numerous varieties that are well adapted 
to our conditions the following are the leading ones: Red 
June, Yellow Transparent, Maiden's Blush, Jonathan, Mis- 
souri Pippin, Gano, Huntsman's Black Arkansas, Mammoth 
Black Twig and Ben Davis. 

The pear and quince thrive liere as well 
PEARS, PEACHES, as the apple, but these have not as yet 
GRAPES ETC. ^^^" planted in large areas. The pear 

tree is one of the longest-lived fruit 
trees grown and the varities successfully cultivated here in- 
clude the Doyenne d'Ete, Tyson, Clapp's Favorite, Elemish 
Beauty, Bartlett, Idaho, Buerre Easter, and Colonel Wilder. 



40 DONA ANA COUNTY 

The coddling moth is the worst insect pest the apple and 
pear growers have to deal with. Its destructive work can be 
successfully checked by proper and frequent spraying. At 
present an experiment is being conducted to eradicate the 
coddling moth by starving it out. 

The Peach, which is also well adapted to this valley, be- 
gins to bear the third season after being transplanted. The 
tendency is to overbear making it necessary to thin so that the 
fruit may not be over-crowded. The only serious drawback 
to the peach is the late spring frosts which occasionally come 
late enough to kill the peach buds, though other fruits are sel- 
dom seriously injured. The late ripening varieties are not as 
regular bearers here as the early kinds. This is because the 
early varieties are the late bloomers and generally bloom from 
8 to 15 days later than the late ripening kinds. The more 
profitable early varieties are the Sneed, Alexander, Hyne's 
Surprise, and Waterloo, while the Texas King, Elberta, Be- 
quette's Free, Chinese Cling and Crothers are the leading 
late ripening kinds. 

The apricot, while a long-lived tree, is less successful than 
the peach. All varieties tried here have proved too early 
bloomers for the spring frosts and for this reason are not suc- 
cessful as a commercial fruit. Cherries, also, particularly the 
sweet varieties, do not do very well. The native and Japanese 
plums are not as satisfactory as the European varieties, the 
Japanese group being practically worthless. The European 
plums, however, do admirably. Coe's Golden Drop, Jeflfer- 
son, Imperial, Transparent Gage, Yellow Egg , Pond's Seed- 
ling, Robe d'Sargant and the French and German Prunes 
have been found very satisfactory. 

The Grape may be given second or third place in import- 
ance in Mesilla valley horticulture. The European or so- 
called California varieties succeed well here and are the ones 
being grown for commercial purposes. The Mission grape 
was about the first fruit to be grown in this valley. The Mis- 
sion, Muscat of Alexander and to a lesser extent the Gros 
Coleman and the Flame Tokay constitute the commercial 
vineyards. The Mission grape, while not very attractive in 



DONA ANA COUNTY 4I 

appearance, is the most popular and a very good table variety. 
Many other good varieties will grow well in this valley, as has 
been shown by grape culture work at the experiment station. 
The grapes now being grown are mid-season varieties and the 
shipping season is therefore short. If earlier and later ripen- 
ing varieties were added the shipping season and the profits 
could be materially extended. All vines are trained on the 
stump system and begin to bear the third year after being 
planted. The yield from old bearing plants varies from 30 to 
50 pounds. As many as 682 vines can be planted to an acre. 

For a long time it was thought that all small fruits would 
not flourish in this valley. Results from recent plantings 
show that strawberries and gooseberries succeed well provided 
proper varieties are used. While the writer has no definite 
data on other small fruits showing their adaptability to our 
conditions, it is believed that many of them will be found to 
succeed. 

Watermelons and cantaloupes do very well and the grow- 
ing of cantaloupes especially is going to prove one of the im- 
portant industries of the valley. " The Rocky Ford canta- 
loupe has proven entirely suc- 
THE MELON INDUSTRY cessful both as to flavor and 

yield. The results at the experi- 
ment station show that in 1906 295 dozens of Rocky Ford 
cantaloupes of marketable sizes, were picked from half an 
acre, or nearly 600 dozen to the acre. The same year half an 
acre planted to watermelons produced 1,193 marketable speci- 
mens weighing 15,120 pounds, or at the rate of 30,240 pounds 
to the acre. 

The cantaloupe experiments at the station and elsewhere 
have demonstrated to the satisfaction of large shippers and 
commission companies that the Mesilla Valley melon has a 
high commercial value. I^liese melons ripen at a time between 
the California melons and the ripening of the Rocky Ford 
crop and being between seasons, v.'ill find a very ready and 
profitable market. Lyon and Coggins, one of the largest 
wholesale commission firms in the country, having charge of 
the shipping from the famous Brawley, California, melon 



4- DONA ANA COUNTY 

district, have contracted for over four hundred acres of Me- 
silla valley cantaloupes for the season of 1908. There is 
every reason to believe that the returns will be large and the 
first season is being watched with interest. The success of this 
first large shipping contract, which is reasonably sure, means 
the extension of shipping facilities for all varieties of Mesilla 
valley fruits and produce. 

Cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins do well, and the sweet po- 
tato is one of the easiest crops to grow. The large Bermuda 
type and the Nansemond, or Yellow Jersey 
VEGETABLES varieties do well. The Jerseys are not as 
large as the Bermudas and the acre-yield is 
not so large. At the experiment station in 1906 a half-acre 
plat of white and red Bermudas produced 10,809 pounds, or 
at the rate of 21,618 pounds per acre. 

Results with Irish potatoes have not been found satisfac- 
tory and it is only occasionally that a fair crop is produced. 

Tomatoes do well, although the field planted crop is slow 
in coming into bearing and the picking season is therefore 
shortened. The estimated yield per acre from results of the 
plats at the experiment station have varied from 8 to 9 tons. 
Practically all tomatoes grown here are canned at the local 
cannery at Las Cruces and as a rule the demand is in excess 
of the supply. 

Celery is a comparatively new crop in this valley and while 
no one is growing it in large quantities, it does well. 

Chili, or red pepper, is another good crop and one that has 
been grown in the valley for years unnumbered. It is a vege- 
table rapidly coming into popular favor not only locally, but 
throughout the country both in the red and green forms. A 
great deal of the green chili used in this country is canned by 
Mr. T. Rouault of Las Cruces, who operates one of the two 
chili canneries in the United States. The cannery's price for 
the green chili has been i }i cents per pound. The yield per 
acre of green chili is greater than that of the ripened pods. The 
average yield obtained at the station in 1907 from a number 
of differently treated experimental plats was 14,683 pounds 
for green and 4,862 pounds for ripe chili, per acre. 



DONA ANA COUNTY 



43 



The Mesilla valley produces excellent onions, although 
the quantity grown thus far is very limited. It has been 
claimed for the El Paso onion which gave the Rio Grande 
valley its reputation as an onion growing section and the seed 
of which seems to have been lost, that it was not uncommon to 
see specimens weighing 13/2 pounds. During the work with 
onions at the experiment station it has been quite common 
to produce specimens weighing from two to two and a half 
pounds while in 1907 one onion (gigantic gibraltar) weighed 
two and three-quarter pounds. The yield per acre is equal to 



and in many cases greater 
lished onion growing 
yield per acre in pounds at 
from small 
plats has been 
250 and 40,450 
t i 1 i z e d with 
Many other 
well here but 
to are the most 




An Onion Weighing S% 
Founda 



than that had in estab- 
districts. The estimated 
the experiment station, 
unfertilized 
as high as 31,- 
from plats fer- 
sodium nitrate, 
vegetables d o 
those referred 
important of the 



commercial crops now being grown. Aside from fruits and 
vegetables the valley is well adapted to the growth of many 
ornamental plants. The Arbor Vitaes, Euonymus, Red Cedar, 
Cypress and other evergreens 
as well as many dicidous trees 
and shrubs are now being 
planted in the ornamental home 
grounds. The rose, chrysan- 
themum, sweet-peas, violets, 
pansies and other familiar flow- 
ering plants are easily grown 
and by proper attention to the 
blooming periods, tiowers may 
be had in the garden during the 
growing months, from spring 
until late in the fall. 

Mesilla Valley Sweet Potatoes 




44 



DONA ANA COUNTY 



THE FARMER OR GARDENER and fruit grower in 
the Mesilla Valley, may, in his spare moments, turn his 
attention profitably to two industries now rapidly grow- 
ing in popular favor; bee culture and poultry raising. Either 
of these industries may be profitably followed alone. The 

alfalfa flowers and many other 
BEE CULTURE AND flowering plants of the valley furnish 
POULTRY RAISING abundant food for the bees, while 

the honey produced is delicious and 
brings the best price. Poultry raising is now being followed 
by many farmers with profit. Natural conditions are favor- 
able and the results obtained are good. There is a steady 
market for both fowl and eggs and prices are so high as to 
make the profits worth striving for. The demand is always 
greater than the supply. Turkeys do well here and owing to 
the dry air and equable temperature, flourish with less care 
than elsewhere. 

There is a ready market for every pound of produce of 
every kind grown in this valley, while the development of 
heavy shipping to distant markets has begun 
MARKETS ^vith the cantaloupe industry. For the truck 
farmer, poultry raiser and dairyman El Paso 
furnishes a splendid local market while Las Cruces and the 
towns along the Santa Fe railroad are important factors in 
creating the demand. The maintenance of the price of alfalfa 
from year to year proves conclusixely the market for that crop 
and the fruit and trucking interests have never yet been able 
to meet the demand. 

The vast extent of open 
range in Dona Ana county 
affords a 
STOCK splendid op- 

G ROWING Portunity for 
cattle and 
sheep raising which is not 
being overlooked in the gen- 
eral development of the 
county. The mildness of the 
climate does away with need ^ coiony of iJe..K at «.ui Mesma 




DONA ANA COUNTY 



45 




The Picturestiue Organ Mountains — The Magniflcent Background 
of the Mesilla Valley 



for shelter. Sheep raising has long been one of the established 
industries while cattle growing has been followed since the 
American occupation. Recently Angora goat raising has 
assumed important proportions. The mild climate makes this 
section peculiarly well adapted to successful growing of An- 
goras and mohair will in the near future be one of the coun- 
ty's important products. 

The mineral resources of Dona Ana county have thus far 
scarcely been more than touched. Enough of intelligent pros- 
pecting has been done to demon- 
MINES AND MINING strate clearly that vast wealth of 

copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc is 
hidden away in the mountains, but of systematic development 
little has been done aside from a small group of important 
properties in the Organ mountains. These mines include the 
Torpedo, Memphis, Modoc, and Stephenson-Bennett, known 
in the mining world as steady producers and it is in their dis- 
trict that most of the development work in the county has been 
done. A railroad has been projected into the Organ mountains 




Front View Loretto Academy, Las Cruces 




Within the Grounds Loretto Academy, Las Crucea 



DONA ANA COUNTY 



47 




and when it is built rapid development of a large section will 
speedily follow. Some desultory mining has been done in the 
San Andreas and Black mountains. All engineers who have 
examined this district have agreed as to the large extent of the 
ore bodies and only proper transportation is needed to bring 
speedy and profitable development. 

Aside from the excellent public 
DISTRICT SCHOOLS school system of Las Cruces. all sec- 
tions of Dona Ana county are sup- 
plied with well conducted district schools. As a result of the 
great influx of new settlers 
into the county and especi- 
ally into the Mesilla valley 
the school population is in- 
creasing very rapidly. New 
school buildings are being 
built, better salaries are be- 
ing paid to teachers and bet- 
teachers are being employed. 
There are nineteen districts 
in the county each one of which has its school building. The 
law requires at least three months of school each year and 
most of the districts hold from six to nine months. In these 
district schools all the common branches are thoroughly taught 
and the newcomer to the Mesilla valley may be assured that 
his children will obtain here as sound a common school educa- 
tion as can be had in any farming community in the country. 
The county schools, here as throughout New Mexico, are be- 
ing graded according to the Nationalized Illinois course of 
study recently adopted by the New Mexico department of edu- 
cation and recognized as the best course of study for common 
schools now in use. All public schools in New Mexico have 
an uniform series of text books in compliance with a recent 
law. These text books are standard and up-to-date and a 
family moving from one section of the territory to another, 
will find the same books in use. 

New Mexico's educational system has advanced very rap- 
idly in the past few years, keeping pace with the general de- 



Stepliensoii-Bennett Mines, Organ 
Mountains 



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DONA ANA COUNTY 49 

velopment. In 1907 close to half a million dollars was ex- 
pended in maintenance of the public schools. The county 
schools are under the direction of a county superintendent who 
is directed by the superintendent of education, who in turn 
derives his authority from the board of education, of which 
he is a member. County teachers' institutes are regularly held 
and rigid examination is required for the three grades of 
teaching certificates granted. Salaries paid to teachers range 
from $35 in the small districts to $60 in more populous rural 
and village schools and will probably advance in the near 
future. 

The New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic 
Arts is an institution of which the people of New Mexico are 
\'ery justly proud and which has done and is doing an im- 
portant work in the development of 
THE AGRICULTURAL the country and in training young 
QQ|_j_^Q^ men and young women to taken an 

active and intelligent part in that 
development. The college, ranking today as one of the lead- 
ing institutions of its kind in the west, is training its student^ 
to make their way in the practical, homely, every-day indus- 
tries of life. It gives no classical course ; it has no law or 
theological departments, but it is turning out men who are 
engineers and chemists, practical fruit growers and stock 
raisers and farmers, assayers and book-keepers and stenog- 
raphers, and young women who are competent housekeepers 
and nurses and thoroughly trained in all branches of domes- 
tic economics. 

This institution, created by the New Mexico legislature 
in 1899, is tw^o miles from Las Cruces on the Santa Fe rail- 
road. Its grounds are healthfully and pleasantly located, it 
has its own postH9fBce and is in close touch with the business 
and social life of Las Cruces. It is supported jointly by New 
Mexico and by the federal government. 

The equipment of the institution is the best to be had and 
is adequate for the work offered which consists, briefly, of 
complete courses in practical and theoretical agriculture, hor- 
ticulture and stock growing, mechanical, electrical and civil 



DONA ANA COUNTY 



51 



engineering, full courses in chemistry and the sciences, with 
courses in domestic science for young women. A fine com- 
mercial course, a course in music, and a preparatory depart- 
ment are also maintained. The seven buildings now in use 
are to be added to during the year, through large appropri- 
ations recently made by the territorial government. 

The agricultural experiment station has been granted addi- 
tional appropriation by recent act of congress and additional 
appropriations iiave been made by the legislature. The total 
income for the present year is $70,000 and this will increase 
by $7,000 a year for the next four years. In addition $30,000 
was appropriated for new buildings by the last legislature and 
$25,000 under a previous appropriation, has just become avail- 
able. The student body is composed of a splendid class ot 
young men and young women and the total enrollment for 
1908 is 308, the largest in the institution's history. 

The record made by graduates of the institution of whom 
there are seventy and by the many students who have taken 
short or partial courses are sufficient guarantee of the char 
acter of the work. 




PUMPING FOR IRRIGATION 

,000 Gallons a Minute from a 6-lnch Well; Experiment 
Station Farm. Mesilla Park. 



52 DONA ANA COUNTY 

/^s. LTHOUGH practical education for his sons and 
/cJlLs\ daughters is of first importance to the 
//^jjr^J^sV farmer and homeseeker, perhaps the most 
/V>C^i^^^\\ important direct benefit the farmer ob- 

/%4|j|^^^^^^V\ tains from the college is in the work 
-^3 -f^ >. of the experiment station. The sta- 

tion is constantly making careful study of soils, seeds, plants, 
plant adaptability, animal husbandry, field crops, irrigation 
plant diseases, insect pests, and in fact into every branch of 
industry having its basis in the soil. The results of these 

experiments are given to the farmers 
THE EXPERIMENT of New Mexico in the form of bulle- 

QTATIflM AMn ^^"^ ^"*^ through the newspapers. 

b I A MUIM AIMU ^^.j^-jg ^^^ college farm is always open 

FIELD WORK to the inspection of farmers who de- 

sire information and instruction. 
Moreover, the experiment station maintains an expert in the 
field, whose duty it is to hold farmers' institutes, give general 
instruction in irrigation and all branches of farm work and to 
furnish practical advice where desired. With recent develop- 
ments in dry farming and irrigation the experiment station is 
proving itself indispensible in inaugurating proper methods of 
culture, introducing suitable crops and giving expert advice 
in the development and use of water supply for irrigation 
The helpfulness of the station and its corps of experts to New- 
Mexico at large and the Mesilla valley in particular is apparent 
on every hand. The farmers of New Mexico may, if they de- 
sire, keep In close touch with the station. They may ask 
advice on the many questions that come up particularly to the 
newcomer and it is to the farmer who is just becoming ac- 
quainted with the country that the experiment station is most 
helpful. With the increased demand of the farmers to be 
posted on the results of its investigations and its increased ap- 
propriation for work and for making public its results the 
station is steadily growing in interest and \-akie to the agri- 
cultural industry of New Mexico. 



DONA ANA COUNTY 53 

SOCIAL conditions in Dona Ana county will be found to 
vary little from and compare favorably with those in 
the older agricultural districts of the central states. The 
religious life of the community finds expression in well es- 
tablished churches. There is a large and commodious Roman 

Catholic cathedral at Las 
SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS Cruces, a mission at Dona 
CONDITIONS Ana, a handsome church at 

Mesilla and missions at San 
Miguel, Chamberino, La jMesa and Colorado. The Episcopal 
church maintains a well organized parish at Mesilla Park, the 
southern branch of the Methodist church has a flourishing- 
organization at Las Cruces, with a membership of ninety-five. 
This church has an organization of thirty members at Cham- 
berino and maintains small missions both at Las Cruces and 
Dona Ana. The Methodist Episcopal church has a mission 
at Dona Ana and a buildino- at Las Cruces. The Presbyterian 
church has an organization at Las Cruces and at Mesilla Park. 
The Baptist and Christian churches also have organizations 
in the county. 

The important secret societies are well represented. 

Dona Ana county is well governed and its financial condi- 
tion is satisfactory. Its people are law abiding and the records 
of the criminal court are gratify ingly brief. The assessed 

valuation of the county in 
TAXATION I907» niade on a basis of about 

I nPAi mwcDMMCMT one-third of the actual valua- 

LOCAL GOVERNMENT, ^-^^^ ^^.^^ $2,451-383. a consid- 

PROPERTY VALUATION, erable gain over the valuation 

of 1906. When it is considered 
that the county and territorial tax is made on a valuation and 
assessment about one-third of the actual valuation, the rate 
of taxation is low. With the rapid increase in population and 
in valuation now going on, the tax rate will go still lower 
while the county's revenue will allow of much in the' way of 
road and bridge construction now needed. The business men 
of Las Cruces have recently done much toward improving 



54 DONA ANA COUNTY 

roads in the vicinity of the town and roads generally through 
the valley are in fair condition. The entire county is served 
by telephone. 

Farm hands in the valley receive from 75c to $1.00 per 
day for day labor and from $18 to $25 per month with board. 
The cost of living varies little from that in other farming 

communities of the western and mid- 
COST OF LIVING die western states. A small percentage 
AND WAGES "^^^ ^^ added for freight on certain 

commodities, but these are few. The 
cost of furniture, farm implements, etc., is about the same as 
in other sections of the west. No intending settler need bring 
his household goods, etc., with him unless for some special 
reason, since the well equipped mercantile establishments of 
Las Cruces can supply all needs. 

Under the stimulus of the general wave of progress and 
advancement that has swept over all New Mexico during the 
past two years, and especially stimulated by the building of 
the Elephant Butte irrigation project, 
DEVELOPMENT Dona Ana county and the Mesilla valley 
are advancing more rapidly, perhaps, than 
any section of the great southw^est. It is not an exaggeration 
to say that the growth of population in the valley has been 
marvelous during the past two years. Hundreds and thous- 
ands of acres of land have changed hands, the land passing 
chiefly into the hands of farmers who are buying it for homes. 
There has been very little of the element of speculation in the 
real estate activity and almost every land transaction recorded 
on the books of the county has meant the arrival of a new 
citizen. This inflow of settlers and land buyers will increase 
steadily as the Elephant Butte project nears completion and 
there will be a natural and probably a very rapid advancement 
in land values. The time to investigate conditions in the Me- 
silla valley is now, when it is possible to take advantage of 
the oportunities offered by the early stages of the development 
of a wonderfully fertile district the future of which is assured. 



PD 1.0.4 



MUCH that has been said and written about this won- 
derful Mesilla Valley, its phenomenally fertile soil, 
its magnificent climate, its splendid and certain future 
may be called into c^uestion. But the facts are here to prove 
away the doubts of any skeptic, whoever he may be. Volumes 
might be written and read by untold readers, yet 
L'EWVOY we would find some still unconvinced. The way 
to find out is to see and the way to see is to come. 
A hearty welcome awaits the prospective homeseeker and 
the tiller of the soil. 

The compiler of this book has seen the dreary, cheerless, 
sage-brush waste of desert and the mesquite covered plain 
transformed into productive farms and orchards by the magic 
influence of water. Long ages ago it was prophesied that 
"The Desert shall blossom as the rose" and here in the Me- 
silla Valley we have the fulfillment of the prophecy, bringing 
to us the realization that "after all, there is no desert." 



The development of New Mexico during the past two years has been phe- 
nomenal. During that period 30,000 entries have been made upon the public 
domain. There has been an increase of more than 100,000 in population. More 
than half a million acres of land have been brought under cultivation and such 
an era of development has set in as has never been 
dreamed of before. The time to come to New Mexico is 
INFORMATION now, whUe this era of development is In Its infancy. 
IIUI V^llivini 1V^I\I .pj^g Bureau of Immigration is an official body organized 
OM DCnilCOX under the laws of New Mexico, its members, of whom 
U IM ntvalUto I there are six, being appointed by the Governor, and con- 

firmed by the upper house of the legislature. The duties 
of the members and the secretary employed by the 
Bureau are to proinole the development of New Mexico, induce immigration and 
furnish information to those who desire it. The officers and members of the 
Bureau as now constituted are: 

President, Joseph W. Bible. Silver City; Vice-President. C. E. Mason. 
Roswell; Treasurer. John A. Haley. Capitan; D. A. Macpherson, Albuquerque; 
Geo. A. Fleming. East Las Vegas; A. M. Edwards, Farmington. 
Requests for information should be addressed to 

H. B. HENING, Secretary, 
The Bureau of Immigration, Albuquerque, N. M. 



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